LANDSTOWN — For years, musicians from Hampton Roads, North Carolina and beyond have gathered at the Virginia Beach Farmers Marketto play and sing bluegrass.

It’s a Friday evening tradition, but it shouldn’t be confused with the Friday Night Hoedowns, which, rain or shine, bring performances to the circle stage when it shines or under a covered pavillion when it rains.

“I’ve been coming to this farmers market, gosh, since the 1980s,” musician Gary Bates, 59, of Chesapeake said. “You used to see three or four jams going on.”

Some of the musicians Bates and others looked up to over the years are older and come out less often, if they can do so.

Yet the memory of the jams is long.

Those who have played here or elsewhere and influenced players live on in the music younger musicians make now.

“I miss ‘em,” Bates said.

Some musicians travel to the jam from out of town, such as Wayne Hicks, 62, a retired Chesapeake firefighter who now keeps his banjo in Sunberry, N.C., or Joy Schmidt, a violinist, who visited recently from the Washington, D.C., area and attended at the invitation of Bill Maddrey, president of the Tidewater Bluegrass Music Association.

During one Friday this summer, Cole Aaron Braswell, a 19-year-old Deep Creek man, brought family and fiddle to the parking lot. He will soon join the military.

Among the places he has played is Wayne’s Body Shop in Portsmouth, a popular spot for bluegrass musicians to congregate.

Theresa Carty of Norfolk, who has frequented the jams for years, said she remembered when Braswell played past gatherings.

“We watched him grow up,” Carty said that summer evening in the parking lot.

“When he started, he was young,” she said. “He was learning. It’s wonderful to listen to him now.”

Gary Bates, 59, and Wade Gibbs, 56, both of Chesapeake, play as night falls over the bluegrass jam in the back parking lot at the Virginia Beach Farmers Market at Princess Anne and Dam Neck roads. [John-Henry Doucette/The Princess Anne Independent News]

Soames Newsome, 46, of Courthouse Estates plays and sings on a Friday night in June. Later that night, the young people behind him danced along to the music. [John-Henry Doucette/The Princess Anne Independent News]

Lin Liao, 55, of Church Point, tunes up at a picnic table in the lot in early July. “I’m learning from these guys,” he said, before playing along with some regulars. [John-Henry Doucette/The Princess Anne Independent News]

Joy Schmidt, visiting from out of town at the invitation of Tidewater Bluegrass Music Association president Bill Maddrey, sits in on July 31, here playing with Roger Gray. Schmidt has been active in the Marathon Jam, a charitable musical effort. Visit www.marathonjam.com for information. [John-Henry Doucette/The Princess Anne Independent News]